Slack 12.1, hal and KDE icons

vdemuth · 05-26-2008, 05:00 AM

Hi all,

OK, have been running Slackware for some time now, but still only consider myself a newbie. Since 11.0, I have been successfully running HAL/DBUS/UDEV and had the ability to just plug in external usb drives, memory sticks etc, and have KDE pop up a window requesting the next action to take, and also getting a desktop icon appear etc. Had this same action through slackware 12.0 with no drama. But having recently upgraded to 12.1, this no longer works.

BTW, the sticky at the top about Slackware 12.0 and HAL is so full of uneccessary waffle, that it is no longer useful, could do with a trim.

Have been struggling with this for a few days now to no avail, but this is what I have found out so far:

Plugging in an external drive, dmesg o/p shows that it is recognised by UDEV, and the correct nodes are created, e.g. sda, sda1 etc

Code:

usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
usb 1-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usb-storage: device found at 3
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
usb-storage: device scan complete
scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     HDS72808 0PLAT20          PF2O PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 160836480 512-byte hardware sectors (82348 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 160836480 512-byte hardware sectors (82348 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0

UDEVMONITOR shows the following

Code:

UDEV  [1211795240.875506] add      /class/scsi_disk/1:0:0:0 (scsi_disk)
UEVENT[1211795240.889782] add      /block/sda (block)
UEVENT[1211795240.889838] add      /block/sda/sda1 (block)
UEVENT[1211795240.889847] add      /block/sda/sda2 (block)
UEVENT[1211795240.889855] add      /block/sda/sda3 (block)
UEVENT[1211795240.889862] add      /block/sda/sda4 (block)
UEVENT[1211795240.889870] add      /class/scsi_device/1:0:0:0 (scsi_device)
UEVENT[1211795240.889878] add      /class/scsi_generic/sg0 (scsi_generic)
UDEV  [1211795240.912301] add      /class/scsi_device/1:0:0:0 (scsi_device)
UDEV  [1211795240.934659] add      /class/scsi_generic/sg0 (scsi_generic)
UDEV  [1211795240.981434] add      /block/sda (block)
UEVENT[1211795240.984492] add      /kernel/uids/99 (kernel)
UDEV  [1211795241.021557] add      /kernel/uids/99 (kernel)
UDEV  [1211795241.143552] add      /block/sda/sda3 (block)
UDEV  [1211795241.200022] add      /block/sda/sda1 (block)
UDEV  [1211795241.237568] add      /block/sda/sda4 (block)
UEVENT[1211795241.274739] remove   /kernel/uids/99 (kernel)
UDEV  [1211795241.276375] remove   /kernel/uids/99 (kernel)
UDEV  [1211795241.277085] add      /block/sda/sda2 (block)

Can mount manually, but that of course is a pretty backward step in the 21st century, and with Slackware 12.1

Still no icons or other notifications. I have double checked that the KDE icon notification is set correctly, but then it has always been set the same over several versions of KDE, again previously without any errors.

I even recompiled and installed UDEV, DBUS and HAL, and get the same results. (put the originals back afterwards)

So, I am at a bit of a loss here. From a system which used to work all of the time when plugging in external devices, I now have a system that doesn't do what I expect, and I seem to be running round in circles in an attempt to get it going again.

Anyone any ideas??

Thanks

SqdnGuns · 05-26-2008, 05:09 AM

have you read all of the "readmes" for 12.1?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...stions-639835/

vdemuth · 05-26-2008, 05:59 AM

Yep, done that.
Here is a bit more info.
If I plug in the external device prior to booting up, then it shows up as an icon on the KDE desktop, where I can then mount, unmount etc, but unplugging it leaves the unmounted icon on the desktop. Subsequently plugging it back in allows me to mount it again at the same mount point, i.e. /dev/sda1 etc. So it looks as though it sort of half works

Woodsman · 05-26-2008, 11:22 AM

Check the KDE Control Center, KDE Components, Service Manager. In Startup Services, verify that both KDED Media Manager and Media Notifier Daemon are selected to start and running. Both services must be running to receive pop-up messages from KDE.

Next check Desktop, Behavior tab that the respective "Mounted" device option is selected. If you do not want unmounted device icons, then ensure those options are not selected. I keep only the Floppy "unmounted" option selected because floppies do not function the same as USB sticks and external hard drives. That desktop icon allows me a quick way to mount a floppy disk (right-click on the icon).

Consider temporarily moving or renaming $HOME/.kde/share/config/mediamanagerrc, which contains meta data about external devices.

When I had similar trouble I used Xfce to verify whether the problem was KDE or underneath.

Another quick check is to temporarily rename $HOME/.kde and then start X, allowing KDE to build a new user directory. You have to tolerate the annoying default bouncing cursor with a virgin KDE user directory, but this method provides a quick means of determining whether the problem is a corrupted KDE configuration file.

shadowsnipes · 05-26-2008, 11:55 AM

Did you do a real upgrade or clean install of 12.1? Can you load external media just by clicking on them in the 'Storage Media' file browser (konqueror, dolphin)?

You might find HowTo: Upgrade Slackware 12.0 to 12.1 useful for other things that might crop up (regardless of whether it is a fresh install or upgrade).

vdemuth · 05-26-2008, 01:58 PM

shadowsnipes, this was an upgrade carried out exactly as per the upgrade instructions. I don't get anything shown within konqueror under system://media except for my fixed discs.
Woodsman, have checked all the KDE parts you suggested to no avail. So I then created a new user, added that user to all the correct groups, i.e. audio, video, cdrom and plugdev, and even with the new user have no pop-up windows, icons or anything of that nature. Is there some log I can look at to see if there are any other underlying problems?

Woodsman · 05-26-2008, 02:47 PM

Quote:

I don't get anything shown within konqueror under system://media except for my fixed discs.

Consider temporarily booting into Xfce. If booting into runlevel 3 then before starting X run xwmconfig to change your desktop. From runlevel 4, use the KDM drop-down pick-list to change. Use the Xfce Settings option to enable desktop icons if necessary. Then try inserting/removing a USB stick. That should help you determine whether the problem is KDE only or more fundamental with udev/hald/dbus.

If you experience no problems with Xfce, then perhaps this could be KDE KIO slave issue, which might mean an obscure installation problem.

If you determine the problem is KDE --- and I know this sounds very Microsoftish

, you might consider reinstalling KDE. For myself, I always have removed the previous KDE packages before updating to the new packages. I enjoy KDE, but always have been wary about updating. Exit X, use pkgtool to remove all KDE packages, and then reinstall those packages. Remember to remove artsd and qt packages and when you reinstall remember that those packages are not in the KDE directory.

Through the years I never have had to destroy or recreate my $HOME/.kde directory. The KDE developers seem to have done a good job updating configuration files with each release.

If no desktop icons appear in Xfce, then focus on udev/hald/dbus, particularly black listing with udev.

Quote:

Is there some log I can look at to see if there are any other underlying problems?

I have configured my system to create a $HOME/.xsession-log. I don't think the stock Slackware supports the log, however (somebody correct me if I am wrong --- I haven't performed a new installation of Slackware in a long time). Other distros call this log .xession-errors, but I changed the name because many programs send stdout messages to this file too. I create this file in a modified /etc/xprofile script, which is called through the startx script. Check my web site (A More Intelligent startx Script) for some information about creating that log. If you have your box configured to create such a log, that might provide some clues. As far as I know, KDE does not create or support any specific log, but will use that log when available. KDE creates the /var/log/kdm.log, but that is all I am aware, which will not help you with this problem.

vdemuth · 05-28-2008, 02:43 PM

Well, after many hours of trying loads of different approaches, including a re-install, it seems the only way I have been able to overcome this has been to downgrade HAL to the version that came with slack12.0 I found this by running HAL from the command line with the --daemon=no --verbose=yes switches and kept getting this error

/usr/sbin/hald: undefined symbol: g_once_init_enter_impl

Googleing came up with little concerning HAL but plenty with other programs. Anyway, by process of elimination, the downgrade works, and I am now back where I was before. Strangely, this is the second downgrade I have had to do now, having previously having to downgrade GTK2 and Pango to get firefox operating after switching to 12.1

T3slider · 05-28-2008, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vdemuth

Googleing came up with little concerning HAL but plenty with other programs. Anyway, by process of elimination, the downgrade works, and I am now back where I was before. Strangely, this is the second downgrade I have had to do now, having previously having to downgrade GTK2 and Pango to get firefox operating after switching to 12.1

I don't know what you're doing to your system, but downgrading packages in a standard install for Firefox to work should never be necessary. Did you check the md5sum of your install CDs/DVD after burning? HAL is also working just as perfectly as before with my upgrade and many others' fresh installs. If you did a re-install (fresh) of 12.1, and it STILL didn't work, I'd consider checking your install media.

vdemuth · 05-29-2008, 12:52 AM

I can't disagree with your logic, except of course, I had even tried compiling from source, with the same results. But to be certain, I carried out a fresh install on a machine I keep for testing various different distros, and guess what, worked perfectly. So, there must be something about my laptop that doesn't like the particular versions of Hal, GTK2 and PANGO that comes with 12.1. Not being a software engineer, I wouldn't even know where to start looking to find out where these programs have changed. leave that sort of thing to people much more talented than myself. Just glad that my solution works for me, and if anyone else happens to come across this same problem, it may be it will work for them too.

rkelsen · 05-29-2008, 06:16 AM

From the way you describe your problem, I'd guess that there are some old config files lying around which are preventing things from working properly. You shouldn't have to downgrade anything for everything to work properly right out of the box.

vdemuth · 05-29-2008, 11:26 AM

That's possible I suppose, but can't really justify spending any more time chasing it. The downgrading of software has worked well so far, and I spent a few hours last night testing all of my other regularly used programs without any errors showing up anywhere, so I am happy to roll with it. Maybe at some point in the future I will break my box again by installing the newer versions of the downgraded programs and try and figure out what is wrong, but for now, I am leaving well alone.